3 Tips to Get the Most out of Your Acumatica ERP Software Training

You want your Acumatica Cloud ERP implementation to be a success—one that’s ultimately measured by high user adoption rates, increased productivity, and better bottom-line business results. There’s no better way to prepare your workforce for success with Acumatica than through the right level of software training.

What’s the “right level” for your workforce? Of course, that depends on your users and their comfort and familiarity with business software—specifically, cloud-based software–and how you plan for them to use their new Acumatica solution. Your implementation partner can help you assess the level of support they’ll need, in addition to providing much of that support—even if users take self-paced AcuCademy courses.

So, as you review our tips to help you make the most of your Acumatica software training, take note of anything your partner can do to make the training process easier and more useful. Let’s get started.

A great place to start the training conversation is with your users: They’re the people who will be engaging with your ERP system on a daily basis, after all. In this day and age, it’s hard to imagine an employee of any age or job function who hasn’t been touched by technology, but it’s helpful to know how many entry-level learners are in your ranks, especially in departments that will be using the software regularly.

If your company has been operating with legacy ERP software, or even a fairly comprehensive business accounting and financial management app, your users are likely familiar enough with the inter-workings of business software—how it manages and processes data, for instance. True, your existing system may be riddled with manual inconveniences and workarounds, but users get the “gist” of how business software is supposed to work and will be thrilled with the fluidity of their new cloud-based Acumatica system.

Importantly, you’ll also need to know how users in each department or functional area will be using their technology—and the extent to which their everyday duties and processes will change after implementation. This information helps set expectations as well as design customized training programs around departmental and individual needs, which typically vary.

When it comes to the likelihood of employees “buying in” to the software and embracing it with open arms, it’s a good idea for managers to lay some pre-training groundwork with their future Acumatica users. With insight into users’ personalities, learning styles and communications preferences, managers can help shape a positive experience from the beginning, encouraging users to prepare for the (great) changes ahead. Managers can also enlist departmental technology “champions” to help get other employees excited about their new tools.

This advice applies not only to training, but to planning and communicating, too. The most successful implementations are those that are not “sprung” on unsuspecting employees—or a workforce that’s fearful of being replaced by technology.

Your employees, or at least some key “power users,” may participate in early-stage implementation activities such as determining software needs, assessing options and selecting a solution. There’s no reason that insights from these tasks can’t be shared with the entire workforce as your organization prepares to introduce a new ERP system—especially if it’s as game-changing as Acumatica’s cloud ERP.

As your IT environment is prepped for Acumatica, take the opportunity to share a simple project timeline with your employees, or ask departmental leaders to brief their staff on what’s coming around the bed, giving employees ample time to ask questions or otherwise get used to the idea of welcoming new technology on board. This is also a good time to share some screen shots or demos with employees who are curious about Acumatica and how it will change the way they work.

From this point, training may get more complex and comprehensive—and probably more “hands-on”—until the solution goes live. From this point on, users will continue to have questions and feedback to share, so be sure they’re met with ongoing access to training resources.

This guest blog is part of a Channel Futures sponsorship.